Frozen in Time
by Xyrule
Summary: A strangely crushed fossil leads to the discovery of something that could change our world forever...
1. An Alpine Fossil

My name is David Nazo Ashe. I am a particle- and biophysicist. My job is to study the effects that life near the reactors creates for the nearby species. It's a slow job. Nothing lives this far up the mountains and the reactors have more protective layers and security systems than the Luna Colony.

But it's not boring. While I work, I also have to check the surrounding rock for changes. I'm fascinated with the shaping of the rock layers and the fossils that I sometimes find hidden within. And I love the perpetual cold winds of the alpine peaks.

I know I'm only out here so often because the rest of the physicists at the base consider me a nuisance anywhere but away. I know that the only thing that keeps them from firing me and dropping me in some city somewhere is my ability and willingness to patrol the area daily. But I don't mind. For me, life is perfect as it is. I don't hate them because they don't like me; instead I love the cold air and the landscape.

* * *

I smiled as I chipped away the last chunk of rock that held my prize to the mountain, and the fossil came out in my hand. I looked at it, and held up a scanner in my other hand, which issued a linear beam of lasers and recorded the contours of the rock, beeping when it was done. I looked at the scanner's screen to see what it had identified the fossil as. A tree shrew. I pressed a button. The scanner began scanning the fossil again, this time recording the chemical makeup of the rock. It returned a short list of the chemicals, none of which really surprised me.

73.275% Calcium Carbonate, CaCO3

23% Dihydrogen Monoxide, H2O

3.65% Silicon Dioxide, SiO2

I smiled. "Exactly the same as always." I said, putting the tree shrew into my backpack. When I got back to the base, I would finish clearing it of rock and add it to my collection.

However, this time was different from usual. The scanner beeped again, and a fourth chemical showed up below the other three.

0.075% Ferrous Silicide, Fe2Si

I quickly took the fossil back out and looked closely at it. Ferrous silicide, or hapkeite, was a very rare mineral that had so far only been discovered in a meteorite in Oman, which was several thousand miles away.

I took out a smaller chisel, sat down, and began to chip away at the remaining sandstone around the shrew.

When I had removed the rock around it (I was careful not to remove the rock that held it together), I studied it for signs of damage, especially around the lung area. I figured the most likely cause of this was that the hapkeite was blown in a cloud here, and that the shrew had died of suffocation from it. But then again, none of the other fossils I had found had contained the compound.

I found a fracture that looked promising. It was between the ribs, and looked like something had been jammed into the ribcage. I narrowed the scanner's range, scanned the spot, and read the screen. I set a filter so that it only showed me the hapkeite content. In the area I scanned, the content was nearly 30%, meaning that the hapkeite had completely lined the wound, judging by its size and depth.

I reset the scanner's range and made a 3-D map of the shrew. I transferred the map to my computer, took it out, turned it on, and began studying it.

I noticed that the shrew was unnaturally bent, as if it had been crushed, and that the bones were worn oddly and crushed together in the wrong places.

I looked at the scanner to see the fossil's age. That might give me a clue as to what had happened.

The scanner read 10,000 BCE. I thought about what was happening here at that time period. Not many large animals lived here, since it's a mountain range. The Alps are gener-

My musings were interrupted by a sharp beeping coming from my watch. I looked at it and read the face. I frowned. It was an Imminent Blizzard Warning. I would have to evacuate back to the base.

I closed my computer and put it back into the pack, then took out a small tarp and a staple gun. I covered the hole that I had found the fossil in and stapled the tarp to the rock, then put the staple gun back. I closed my pack, put it back on, and put the scanner in my pocket. The fossil I just carried, since it was too fragile to risk putting away.

I stood up and looked around, then began walking down the path back to the base.

* * *

 _Behind a rock, something watched as I walked back. It waited until I had gotten to within a few feet before disappearing._

* * *

I stopped walking and turned my head. I had thought I saw seen something unusual out of my peripheral vision, like something's shadow going over the mountain face.

I shook my head and continued walking. Nothing was there. I was Nova CERN's only field agent and nothing lived this high up.

I turned and walked down a different path, which cut through the mountains in a near-perfect line, making it much easier and less time-consuming than walking along the twisted paths that went around the sides of the mountains.

After a short time of walking, I could see the base. It was a sprawling series of metal walkways and buildings that covered most of the space between the mountains in this area. Scientists walked or ran along the walkways, some covered in cold-weather clothes and some dressed in summer outfits. It might sound insane to you, wearing a T-shirt and shorts in -10 degree Fahrenheit weather, but here, it was perfectly normal. Typically, they're carrying or carting something, but right now, they were all just setting the area up for lockdown to prepare for the coming blizzard.

What really made the complex seem out of place was that every inch was covered in clear, non-reflective material to keep the metal from blinding everybody. The material gave the complex a strange, two-dimensional look.

Several walkways went inside of the mountains, going into underground caves that snaked upwards to form the second layer of the complex. The bottom layer was for most of the current projects and theories to be tested, while the upper layer was the living quarters for all of the scientists working here.

Above those towered the Triplet Colliders, three gigantic metal tori that each were held up by a single, deceptively thin rod that was driven into the peaks of three mountains. I stopped, looked up at them, and pointed at each one, saying its name like I did every time I returned to the base.

I pointed at the smallest (a misnomer to be sure) first. "The Electroenergetic Particle Accelerator."

Next, I pointed at the second-largest. "The Neutronium Reactor."

Last, I pointed at the largest one. "The Antimatter Plasma Collider."

I smiled and continued walking, going into one of the mountains and to the second level.

I walked to my apartment and went inside. It was a compound, with two separate bedrooms. It helped keep the complex less crowded. My roommate, Ian King, was a monitor at the NR, so I knew he'd still be gone for another 5 hours or so, since the Triplet Colliders are high up enough to avoid blizzard damage and the employees there still had work.

I looked around the living room. It was small, basically consisting of a door on either side, a window at the back, and a couch on either side next to the window.

I walked into the left room, which was mine.

The room to the right was absolutely neat, with nothing out of place. My room, however, was a disaster. Papers and clothes were strewn everywhere. Not a single piece of paper had any words legible to most. They were instead covered with the loopy mess that was my handwriting.

The bed was perpetually unmade, and yet was very clearly hardly ever used. The writing desk I had in the corner was also covered in paper, with a broken lamp on one end, a candleholder on the other, and an old Lenovo laptop disguised as a mound of paper in the middle.

I waded through the paper-and-clothes carpet to my dresser, opening the top drawer. Inside was several hundred fossils of various sizes, all perfectly labelled and ordered by alphabetical order with their scientific names. This dresser was the only thing in my room that I ever kept clean and organized, and so far, I had never misplaced or mislabelled a single fossil.

I put the tree shrew fossil in a small cardboard box that was lined with tissue paper. The box contained my rarest, most valuable, and most intriguing finds.

I closed the box and the dresser and dumped my pack on my bed, then waded back out to the living room.

I sat down on a couch and looked out the window. In the horizon, I could see huge snow clouds billowing towards the complex. I smiled. When blizzards start, most people go off to do their own thing, but I like to watch them. Here, even a small one is enough to wipe out the entire base. Their power fascinates me, just like the histories locked in fossils fascinates me.

I laid down on the couch and watched as the blizzard, big even for its own standards, rolled closer.

I felt a vibration go through the house and smiled. What, you thought that no measures were taken to prevent a disaster?

The vibration swept through the complex in seconds, shaking the mountains as a machine deep underground began its task.

A huge, faintly lime green dome of energy came out of the ground around the complex, rising quickly and tapering to a rounded point at the top, going around the rods holding the Triplet Colliders and reconnecting in the middle.

The blizzard arrived, blasting itself at the field with its full power. The field held steady, protecting the base from the powerful storm.

After a bit, the base went out of lockdown, and work continued as always. I sat for a little longer, listening to the snow and hail hitting the field, before getting up and going back to my room.


	2. A Stunning Discovery

I waded to my bed, got out my laptop, and made my way to the writing desk, swiping the papers off the chair and sitting down, setting the laptop on the paper covering the second one.

I opened the laptop and reopened the 3-D imaging program, which still had the tree shrew fossil on it. I clicked the empty title box and labelled it "Tree Shrew Fossil. Found near the peak of Mount Osseuse, alt. 3,503 m."

I zoomed in to the fossil, making it fill the screen. I rotated it and added a text box pointing to the ribcage, saying "Signs of damage, lined with Hapkeite (Fe2Si) deposits."

I zoomed in on the damaged area and set a filter to turn the rock transparent so I could see the bones alone.

I studied the damaged area, rotating and zooming as needed, as well as setting a color filter so that the hapkeite showed up as bright yellow over the brown bones.

I continued studying it, jotting down notes in boxes pointing to sections.

"Hmm...Let's see…" There's only one mark, so whatever caused the injury didn't go all the way through, but it still caused fatal damage. The hapkeite covered the bone in such a way that it must have been some kind of projectile, but there were three problems with that. First, the only time hapkeite has ever been found before now was in a meteorite in Oman, making it impossible for a chunk to fly this far with such momentum. Second, that meteorite was several million years older than this fossil, which, as my scanner had already indicated, died 10,000 years ago. The third was that the projectile wasn't lodged in the fossil.

I frowned and rotated the image some more. "Come on. Tell me your secret."

The image, obviously, didn't reply.

Several maddening hours later, I was still rotating the image, now only really half-paying attention. I checked the clock quickly. 2 superrevs and 6,132,336 revs.

I yawned. It was getting late. I blinked slowly a few times and lowered my head.

* * *

I woke with a start when my computer's alarm set off, followed by me sitting straight up, and then my chair falling backwards. I cursed in surprise, stood up, quickly turned off the alarm, and held my left ear, which had been right next to the audio port. I couldn't hear anything out of it, and when I pulled my hand back, it came back with red dots of blood. I sat down on my bed, snapping my fingers near the ear every few seconds.

After some time, my left ear went from completely deaf to hearing a loud, buzzing ring. I shook my head a few times, but the ring didn't go away. I sighed. Oh, well. A ringing noise was better than deafness.

I yawned again and left the room. The window was illuminated by the energy field, the blizzard beyond just as strong as before.

I glanced at the wall clock. 9 superrevs and 1,423,578 revs. About time to start work again.

I smirked and shook my head. It may be time to work, but there was something stopping me. There was a giant energy field and an even more enormous blizzard in the way.

I looked back at my room. Sure, the fossil wasn't technically part of my work, and sure it was the most frustrating thing I've ever found, but I had to figure it out. That hapkeite residue intrigued me. I had to figure out its secret.

I walked into the room, set the chair in the correct position, and sat down.

I decided to take a different approach.

I got back up, went to my dresser, carefully took the fossil out, closed the dresser, and sat back down, putting the fossil on the desk next to the laptop and opening a different program, which would scan the fossil and the criteria I enter and return different possibilities for what could have happened.

I went back to the old one and moved my cursor to the Exit button. I was about to click it when something in the image caught my eye.

I looked at it, searching for what I had seen. I didn't zoom in or rotate at all, afraid that I would lose whatever it was.

I realized what I had seen. The bright yellow was grouped together in a strange way.

I slowly rotated the image, carefully watching the yellow and how it was shaped.

I stopped when the yellow lined up as well as I could get it. It formed a wavy curve through the shrew's torso that tapered to a point near the base of its tail.

I frowned. A curvature like that with such a defined end couldn't have been made, even if you took into account the natural stretching of a fossil, by any kind of projectile.

It crossed my mind that this had been giving me this much trouble because the image still showed the fossil in its crushed and warped form. I stretched and tweaked the fossil so that it looked like it had in life and rotated it again.

I gasped. The hapkeite deposits lined up to form a curve that tapered to a very defined point.

It hadn't been killed by a flying chunk of meteorite. It had been killed by a talon.

I looked at the real fossil, sitting on the desk. "What _are_ you?"

I filled the image with a representation of plaster, stopping when the entire talon wound had been filled. I digitally pulled the mold out and sent the data to my 3-D printer, which beeped and made the talon with plaster that I had put in it several days ago.

I picked up the printed talon, got out a chisel and brush, and began clearing the extra plaster from it.

When I had smoothed it out, I rotated it in my hands, studying the shape and size. It was about 5 inches long, and very smooth, tapering to a point that drew blood when I tapped it.

I got out a piece of paper and placed the claw on it, tracing it onto the paper and keeping the base undrawn to show that what was beyond was missing.

I took the talon off the paper and set it above it, then began to fill in the trace. I had a little trouble getting the center edge correct, because it was oriented outward instead of having the "valley" that most predators have.

After I finished, I held up the paper and scrutinized it, checking for errors. When I was satisfied that it looked like the plaster one, I smiled and went to work labelling it.

REPRESENTATION OF THE TALON THAT KILLED UNKNOW TREE SHREW FOSSIL

TALON SPECIES OF ORIGIN: CURRENTLY UNKNOWN REPTILIAN SPECIES

LENGTH OF INNER CURVE: 5 INCHES

LENGTH OF OUTER CURVE: 8 INCHES  
ESTIMATED SIZE OF ANIMAL: 4'6" AT SHOULDER, 7'3" FEET IF STOOD ON TWO LEGS

TALON CHEMICAL MAKEUP: HAP

I stopped before I finished the "K" in "HAPKEITE". Hapkeite was a weak rock, with a hardness of only 4 or so, and deadly poisonous in quantities as large as this claw. However, a hapkeite shell would be stronger than corundum, and would not have the dangerous qualities that large quantities contain. I continued writing, changing my intended wording a little.

TALON CHEMICAL MAKEUP: HAPKEITE OUTER ENAMEL, UNKNOWN CORE COMPOUND

I was about to write more when the complex began vibrating again, signalling the end of the blizzard and subsequent lowering of the energy field.

I sighed and put away the fossil. I went back into the living room, bringing the drawing with me.

I squinted as the bright daylight hit my eyes. I checked the clock. 9 superrevs and 197,110,800 revs. I had worked for over an entire cycle.

I stretched. I wasn't at all tired, so I figured I would be fine for the day. Just in case, though, I added my thermal sleeping bag to my other various items in my pack. I rolled the paper up, deciding not to fold it, and stuck it in my pocket. It probably would make me look like an idiot to the other scientists, but I wasn't exactly the most popular person here anyway, so no harm done.

I also put the plaster claw in the same pocket, though why, I don't know.

I banged the right wall, heard movement inside, and said I was going out. I heard grumbling as a reply, and went out the door. Ian had been up for 4 days during his shift, monitoring neutronium reactions, among others, in the NR. He'll probably be asleep until his next shift in 192 superrevs.

I walked down the walkways to the mountain I had crossed to get here, went in, and exited on the first floor. As usual, scientists were busy running or walking, and as usual, the Triplet Colliders looked just as deceptively fragile as always.

I walked to the bridge I had used earlier and made my way back to Mount Osseuse. I cleared the snow and hailstones and sat down, removing the tarp from my excavation site from last time I was here.

* * *

 _It walked around the 10-foot wide alcove in the rock. It shed the lining of one of its talons and kicked it aside, not needing it anymore since it had already grown a new lining._

 _It noticed a piece of green, slightly shiny fabric near where it had kicked the shedding to._

 _It looked at the tarp, curious. It had never seen something like it, or like the shiny grey things holding it to the rock. It was about to tap it when it heard a noise from behind._

 _It whirled around and leapt, landing on a rock ten feet above. It sat perfectly still and watched the area below._

* * *

I was about to look inside (who knew, maybe there was another clue to the puzzle?) when something caught my eye.

I looked next to the hole I had dug out. What was that buried under the snow?

I carefully removed the snow that covered the thing. I gasped when it had been completely revealed. I quickly took the plaster talon from my pocket and picked the thing up.

* * *

 _It sucked in air, stunned that the person it had seen a few days earlier had what looked like a talon in its hand. It wondered what it was planning on doing with the shed lining._

* * *

I held the thing, which felt like fingernails and was flexible enough to bend where I squeezed it.

I held the plaster talon up next to it, then slowly pushed it into the thing. It fit perfectly. I had guessed correctly.

This thing was a talon, or at least, its lining.

I held my breath, shocked. Yes, I had harbored some belief that I might find more evidence of talons, but not like this. This specimen must have been petrified in ice even before the animal died, to have survived in such perfect condition for so long.

I took out my scanner and scanned the lining, returning the plastic talon to my pocket.

The scanner read as follows:

62% Ferrous Silicide, Fe2Si

25% Dihydrogen Monoxide, H2O

10% Glucose, C6H12O6

2.999% Hemoglobin, C2952H4664O832N812S8Fe4

0.001% Deoxyribonucleic Acid

Approximate Age: 4,383 Superrevs

Approximate Age Post-Molted: 98,555,400 Revs

I reeled back when I saw the age. This was no fossil. This must have been shed right before I got here.


	3. First Encounter

I backed up and looked around. With such a short time interval, whatever had shed this could still be here.

When I was looking away from my excavation site, I heard a spray of snow fall behind me, and I must have jumped 6 inches in the air.

I whirled around and looked up, at the little ledge that hung a little over the alcove.

I thought I heard something skittering away over the rocks, so I cautiously climbed the ten feet between the ledge and me and pulled myself onto it, looking in all directions for the source of the noise.

There was nothing there. I shook my head. I must have been hearing things. The snow here was fairly thin and prone to miniature avalanches. It shouldn't have scared me as much as it did.

But whatever had shed this talon had been here, and very recently. My scanner isn't always 100 percent accurate; it could very well have missed the actual age by several days. Whatever had dropped it had probably been gone for days now.

I quietly repeated this to myself until my panic had subsided and I felt calm again.

I felt something wet on my hand and opened it to see what it was. Blood. I had involuntarily been gripping the talon lining tightly enough to cut my skin.

I put the lining down on the rock next to me and tended to the cut, getting some iodine and a gauze strip from my pack and putting them on, replacing the iodine in its container in the pack.

I yawned, finally noticing how exhausted I was after working through the night. I laid back on the rock and closed my eyes, smiling.

The sun was in just the right position to give a rare moment of warmth to the mountains. It contrasted well with the coolness of the rocks, and the combination gradually lulled me to sleep.

* * *

 _It looked out from behind the rock it was behind, watching as the human climbed up to the spot it had been sitting at earlier. It watched the human sit down after looking around for a few seconds, seeming to be lost in thought. It saw it open its hand, which was still holding the lining it had shed, and then set it down next to it and cover a wound created by the talon. The human then laid down and fell asleep._

 _It cautiously left its hiding place behind the rock, getting now that the human was asleep. It walked up to it, keeping careful track of its arm, leg, and head movements in case it had to bolt._

 _It cocked its head, curious. It had heard stories of humans from its ancestors. How they destroyed the environment with giant machines, how they covered the land with their metal forests, how they callously ended entire species without a second thought._

 _But this human looked so peaceful, caught in slumber, that it couldn't match its mental picture of them with this one._

 _It looked over the human's body. It had no talons, no stingers, not even protective scales. It didn't seem to have any physical way to survive, and yet, it knew humans were the most common species on the planet. Judging by the pack it carried, the strange loose furlike materials covering its skin, and the fact that it could speak, it seemed that the humans had a definitely high cognitive capacity. Perhaps that was how they had survived._

 _It noticed the pack the human was wearing. It decided it might as well search the pack. If the human was carrying weapons, they would be there. If not, well, then it will have gathered new information about the humans to tell others of its species._

 _It decided to risk waking the human up, and carefully turned it over, removing the pack, careful not to scratch the human with its talons._

 _When it had successfully removed the pack, it studied it, it found a slight problem: its claws were too large to fit in the tiny holes on the zippers. There was no way for it to open the pack without completely ripping it to shreds._

 _It sat down with the pack and mulled over the problem, trying to figure out a way to solve it. It occasionally looked at the human, checking to make sure it was still asleep._

* * *

I woke up half an hour later to the feel of rocks on my face.

I lifted my head. I must have rolled over while I slept.

I pushed myself up and sat down, yawning. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and scratched a spot on my back.

I felt a wave of panic suddenly rise when I didn't feel my pack. I panicked and looked around for it, then relaxed when I saw it a few feet away. I must have taken it off before I fell asleep.

I got up and walked over to it, looping my arms into the straps and standing back up. I found the talon lining I had found earlier, put it in my pocket, and climbed back down to my excavation site.

"Hmm...my pack seems heavier than usual...I must have found something that I've forgotten...I'll have to check that later." I mused, adjusting the pack and walking down the path back to the complex.

* * *

 _It drifted out of subconsciousness when it felt something lift it from the ground. It ignored the sensation, nuzzling its head a little closer to the pack and going back to its dream world._

 _It was jarred completely awake when it felt footsteps through the pack. It looked up and saw the human walking. Nothing really registered for a few seconds, until it realized that the human was only a few inches away and was wearing the pack._

 _It let out a cry of surprise and dropped from the pack, startling the human._

* * *

I was startled by a sudden, sharp animal cry behind me, and my pack suddenly felt lighter.

I whirled around and, I'm not ashamed to admit, shrieked at the top of my lungs.

I only caught a glimpse of it before it disappeared behind a ledge, but what I saw chilled me to the bone.

It was midnight black. It stood at about four feet tall. It let out an aura of darkness that terrified me. I didn't see anything else, but that was all I needed. I decided then and there to abandon my excavation here, if something like _that_ was living here.

I quickly turned around and ran as fast as I could back to Nova CERN, only relaxing after I had safely locked myself into my apartment.

I touched my chest with a palm. My heart was racing about a million miles a superrev. My forehead was covered in sweat, and my face was pale.

I went into my room, sat down on the bed, and promptly fainted.

I woke up a couple seconds later, after my heartbeat had slowed down and I wasn't sweating anymore. I decided to just pass the entire experience off as a nightmare and forget about it.

I put my hand in my pocket and felt the plaster talon, followed by the talon lining. I decided to continue my work on this thing, if only to keep me occupied.

I got out another sheet of paper and began tracing the lining, making slightly different notes than the first drawing.

TALON LINING DISCOVERED AT PEAK OF MOUNT OSSEUSE

TALON SPECIES OF ORIGIN: CURRENTLY UNKNOWN REPTILIAN SPECIES

AGE: OLDER THAN 100,000,000 REVS

COLORATION: TRANSLUCENT SILVERY-WHITE

SOFTNESS: 6.3

LENGTH OF INNER CURVE: 5.1 INCHES

LENGTH OF OUTER CURVE: 8.14 INCHES  
ESTIMATED SIZE OF ANIMAL: 4'6" AT SHOULDER, 7'3" FEET IF STOOD ON TWO LEGS

LINING CHEMICAL MAKEUP: 62% FERROUS SILICIDE, 25% DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE, 10% GLUCOSE, 2.999% HEMOGLOBIN, 0.001% TRIOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID

I took out my first drawing and compared the two. They matched up fairly well, so I rolled them both together and examined the lining again.

"What are you?" I asked again. I reflected on my excavation site. Since I had promised never to go there again, I had no more ways to learn more about this creature.

I looked back at the paper and had a spark of inspiration. This thing had active DNA! With that, I could find every characteristic this animal has!

Of course, I couldn't be the one to do the test. I didn't have access to the macromolecular facilities. I would have to ask for somebody who does have access to take it, test it, and send the results back to me.

I tapped a button on my watch's face, and it popped open on a hinge, revealing a small screen on the inside and a 3-key keyboard on the bottom.

I pressed one key and said what I wanted to call.

''The Macromolecular Facilities, Level 3, Experimental Rooms Lobby.''

The watch beeped as it sent the call request, and I waited for a response.

A few seconds passed, and then a face appeared on the tiny screen.

''What is it, David?'' the person asked. I recognized him as Dr. Gene Holdrich, the head of the DNA team.

''Sir, I have a DNA sample that I need to have tested. I have reason to believe that it's of a currently unknown carnivorous species.''

Dr. Holdrich looked thoughtful. ''Where is this DNA coming from?'' he asked. I showed him the talon lining, and he laughed.

"Oh, trying to bring back the dinosaurs, are you? Sorry, but they died too long ago to recover DNA from. You should go back to patrolling and stop digging up fossils.''

''Sir, I found this only today. My scanner gave me an approximate age of only 98,555,000 revs.'' I said. He only laughed harder.

''Then get a new battery!'' he said before hanging up.

I sighed and closed the watch. I hadn't really expected anybody to listen. The talon _did_ look almost exactly like a dromaeosaur's, though it was thicker, lacked the groove, and was less bent. And besides, no animal in human history has a claw like it.

But I had to get a DNA sample, or the mystery of what it is would haunt me for the rest of my life. I'm a scientist. I have to find out the answers to the mysteries.

The only way to get the sample would be to get into the Facilities and do the test myself.


	4. Another Piece of the Puzzle

I waited until 10 superrevs and 197,110,800 revs to make my move. At that time, the entire crew of the Macromolecular Facilities changed shifts. I dressed in one of their uniforms and slipped in with the crowd, easily hidden by the amount of people.

Once in, the group split into 4 smaller, but still large, groups that each went to a different elevator. My group went to the third level (DNA Research and Experimentation).

I waited for everybody to go into a lab, then went to one that nobody had entered.

Inside, I put on an anticontamination suit and entered the main chamber, which had the machine used to test samples. I took out the talon lining from a pocket, clipped a piece from the base, where it was thinnest, and placed the piece on the detecting plate, inserting it into the machine's main chamber.

I activated the chamber and watched as it scanned the sample and printed out the results on a roll of seismograph paper.

I sat down and took out a book. This part was the longest. It could take up to an hour for the information to fully process.

After a while, the machine's slow, rhythmic beeping lulled me to sleep, the same way the sun had done earlier, during the day.

I was woken by somebody tapping on my shoulder. My eyes snapped open, and another person in an anticontamination suit stood there, backing up a little when I woke up.

''Hey there. I don't think I've seen you here before. Are you new?'' she said with a soft Japo-Oriental accent. Her face was hidden by the tinted visor, so I couldn't see it.

I sat up. ''I'm not here for long. I just have something I'm working on-''

The girl's head raised a little. ''Oh, the DNA test! Well, you might want to see the results. I took a peek at them (Out of curiosity, I swear), and they're really strange. Well, the intact parts are.''

She handed me a packet of paper that was at least 10 pounds total. ''Here's the information. I left the sample in the machine for you.''

I took the packet. ''You're a geneticist?'' I asked. The girl nodded.

''Karen Wu, recently transferred to the Level 3 Macromolecular Facilities DNA research team and the medical offices here after graduating from Japo-Oriental University as valedictorian with a PhD in bioengineering and genetic sciences.''

She held a hand out, which I shook.

I introduced myself as well. ''David Nazo Ashe, graduated from Cambridge University with a PhD in biophysics and a Master's Degree in genetic physics. I work as Nova CERN's only field agent, patrolling the area to ensure that the facilities haven't damaged the environment.''

Karen nodded. ''How long have you worked here?'' she asked.

''I've been here since the complex was built. When I was a kid, I lived over at CERN before the incident.''

Karen cringed. ''Ah. I heard about that, but I wasn't around then. Volcanic activity, wasn't it?'' she said. I nodded.

''That and an earthquake. The real damage happened when the Large Hadron Collider ruptured.'' I corrected.

Karen nodded again. ''Must have been terrible.'' she said. I shrugged.

''I was seven. I don't remember much from before it happened. And I was gone then, so I didn't experience it, and that's how I'm here now. Anyway, I don't look back, since there's no point in it.''

Karen nodded thoughtfully. ''Very wise. It's never good to be stuck in the past.'' she said, a little sadly. I decided not to ask why.

She sat down next to me. I was glad my suit hid my face, or she would have seen me blushing. I had never been so close to somebody else, especially a girl, before.

We didn't say anything for about 0.2 superrevs, and then I decided it was time for me to leave.

I stood up. ''I have to go now. Sorry for stopping whatever you were going to do...'' I said. Karen laughed.

''It's fine. I was planning for a delay anyway.'' she said. I smiled and went to the test chamber, removed the talon sample, tossed it in an incinerator (it had no use now), and repocketed the talon lining itself. I picked up the stack of seismograph paper and prepared to leave.

I turned to Karen. ''Do you mind keeping this a secret? I'm not technically supposed to be here...''

Karen laughed again and ran an index finger over her visor where her mouth was. ''Your secret's safe with me. Don't worry.''

I thanked her and went out the door, beginning to run down the hallway, then stopped when Karen shouted something from the room.

''Hey, try to come back sometime! Same room!'' she called.

I smiled. ''Okay, I will!'' I shouted back, then turned back around and continued running, turning a corner and entering the elevator.

* * *

 _It found a large mass of metal stretching across several mountains. It looked around. There were humans walking everywhere on the metal, going in and out of buildings._

 _It looked up at the second level, and couldn't see anything. It climbed a couple dozen feet up a mountain and latched itself onto the bottom of the walkway, looking out from the side._

 _It saw a single light on in one of the buildings, and decided to explore further._

 _It made its way to the light, easily blending into the darkness to avoid unwanted eyes. It hooked a hand onto the side of the building and looked inside._

 _It drew its head back in surprise. Inside sat the human it kept running into on the mountain, the person with its talon lining. The human was holding a packet of papers, skimming through them and occasionally writing something down in a notebook or on the papers._

* * *

I exited the MF and stopped running, since the outer walkways were by no means perfectly level and uniform and it was far more likely that I would trip and fall here.

I walked back to my apartment with the stack of paper and opened the door. I walked in and set the paper onto the couch on my side, sitting down between it and the window.

I flipped the stack upside-down and began studying the results.

Right away, I noticed something highly unusual. This animal, whatever it is, doesn't have the typical DNA structure. This thing had 3 helixes!

I gawked at the paper, instantly amazed. First of all, I didn't know the length of its DNA, so I couldn't get the exact number of pairing sequences it had. And with the addition of this third helix, any number of possibilities exist for its characteristics.

I made a note at the beginning of the strand.

SPECIMEN HAS TRIOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID, NOT DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID.

ALL NOTES AND SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH MADE PERTAINING TO SPECIMEN ARE PURELY SPECULATION.

I flipped through a couple of the pages, and noticed a relative trend. At least the two strands seemed to follow the exact same pattern. I skimmed through the pages with my scanner on, scanning the graphs for discrepancies.

My scanner beeped for the first time at page 592, telling me that, if the information was the same as a typical double-helix, there were no differences between it and DNA up to the Kingdom level. A quick backtrack confirmed that it was, as I thought, a member of Eukaryota (multicellular organisms), and, also as expected, in the Animalia Kingdom.

I looked at the first several discrepancies, which began at the phylum level.

The normal double-helix half suggested that this animal was in the Chordata phylum, but the third helix suggested that it wasn't a member of Chordata. In fact, the third helix was a completely unknown phylum. It suggested a vast number of possible variations, which, according to the rules of life and the age of the fossil I found, means that several hundred thousand different species must exist of this phylum.

I made a note that pointed to the phylum pages.

UNKNOWN PHYLUM, ASSUMED CHORDATA

FURTHER RESEARCH REQUIRED

I decided to separate the first 591 pages, since they just confirmed for me that it was indeed a living thing, a multicellular organism, and an animal.

I set aside that half for later study and continued studying Phylum and after.

The subphylum section of both graphs agreed that the animal was a member of Vertebrata, which I labelled accordingly.

The class was also unanimous, deeming it Mammalia. This surprised me. In both cases, the talon I found was reptilian, and yet, its TNA very clearly said it was a mammal.

I wondered if it was because of its triple helix that this happened, then decided against that. So far, other than the phylum discrepancy, it had remained true to normal DNA rules. I supposed that it wasn't too unusual, since there _was_ a living example of a mammal with long talons similar to this: the ungulate superorder.

I paused and got up. I went to my room, got out a notebook, and came back, summarizing all the notes I had made so far.

TRIOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID

DOMAIN: EUKARYOTA

KINGDOM: ANIMALIA

PHYLUM: UNKNOWN, ASSUMED CHORDATA

SUBPHYLUM: VERTEBRATA

CLASS: MAMMALIA

I continued studying the information. I went through the last 160 pages and labelled what I had found.

SUBCLASS: THERIIFORMES

INFRACLASS: HOLOTHERIA  
SUPERCOHORT: THERIA

COHORT: PLACENTALIA

ORDER: UNKNOWN

FAMILY: UNKNOWN

GENUS: UNKNOWN

SPECIES: UNKNOWN

I wasn't able to fill out the Order and farther because several sections of the helices weren't listed, most likely deemed impossible to retrieve by the computer. I put down those notes in their respective places in the packet of paper.

I then went through and assessed each section more closely, writing down major characteristics, but the only ones I could find were those that could be considered obvious.

DIET: UNKNOWN

SKIN COVERING: UNKNOWN, ASSUMED DENSE FUR

BODY SHAPE: UNKNOWN

HEIGHT: UNKNOWN

WEIGHT: UNKNOWN

LIFE SPAN: UNKNOWN

HABITAT: SWISS ALPS

I decided to take a break, since I had already looked through most of the available graphs. I put my notebook and pen in the page I was on, then closed the packet.

I yawned. This was the third night that I had been up this late, and I needed sleep anyway. I stood up to go back to my room.

* * *

 _It watched the human close the stack of papers it was looking at. The human stood up, surprising it. It accidentally ripped its hand out of the wall and fell, too quickly to grab onto anything._

* * *

I heard a ripping sound coming from outside. I opened the window and looked out, but didn't see anything in the darkness. I shrugged and closed the window, then shut the blinds.

I went back to the couch and gathered up the stacks of paper, then went into my room.

I set the paper down on my computer, then went to my bed, laid down, and immediately fell asleep.


	5. Animal in the Mountains

The next day…

I woke up fairly easily. I walked out of my room, yawned, and checked the time. 10 superrevs. A little later than usual.

I put on my pack and walked out the door.

I frowned, confused. Nobody was out. The walkways were deserted.

I took out my scanner and checked the date. Suma I.

I nodded. I had forgotten about the 3-month break. Every year, everybody at Nova CERN got a vacation for the duration of the summer, from Suma I to August XXVIII.

I sighed, then smiled. Summer had come just in time. Now, I would have much more time available for studying the graphs, and for finding more evidence of habitation by the species.

I went back inside and got out the second section of the graphs.

I decided that, in order to understand the species better, I had to first give its unusual phylum a temporary name. I thought for a little while before settling on calling it _Polyschimatae_ , Greek for "many shapes", on account of the structure's incredible capacity for genetic variations.

I added the note to the page and my notebook and began studying the later parts of it, trying to decipher what the conflicting pieces between the helices meant, as well as attempting to guess what the missing sectors were. The missing parts worried me. They seemed to only appear where an important trait should be, like its diet, basic body shape, height, and weight.

After about 0.5 superrevs, I decided to stop for the day. It was the first day of Suma, I should spend it relaxing for once.

I closed the packet and walked out. I thought about what I should spend the day on. The only things you could really do here that didn't involve some form of science were taking a walk, mountain climbing, or just sleep.

I thought for a little, then decided I _could_ explore the area underneath the mass of walkways. I had been curious about what it looked like since I got here, but never really thought to actually see.

Now that I had decided what to do, I went back inside and got my pack. To get to the bottom, I would still need to do a fair amount of rappelling, and my pack contained all the materials needed to do that.

I walked to the main exit, put on a pair of thick leather gloves, and took out my rope. I attached three harness clips to one end, then attached the clips to my belt loops at either side and the back. The other side I looped through a metal ring with a nail at one end, then looped the end through the clip on my back belt loop.

I took out a hammer, carefully aligned the metal ring on the rock, nail side facing away from me, and then proceeded to pound it into the stone, until the entire shaft of the nail had been driven in.

I put the hammer back in my pack and tugged on the rope a couple times to test the nail's strength. It would hold my weight fairly easily.

I gripped the rope a foot past where it looped through the clip, then began to climb down the mountain, releasing more rope as needed.

For half a superrev, the only sound was the rope going through the clip's roller and my breathing echoing off the rock face.

When I had descended what I estimated was about ⅔ of the mountain's height, it began to get dark. This far below the complex, the sunlight had few opportunities to reach here.

I stopped descending and opened my pack, careful not to drop it. I took out a climbing light and closed the pack, returning it to my back. I fitted the light onto my head, adjusted it so that the flashlight front was on my forehead, and then turned it on, illuminating the darkness.

I smiled and began descending again, quietly humming to myself.

After another 0.25 superrevs, I felt my feet hit bottom.

I stood up on the ground and looked around. The regions that were too far for my light to illuminate were pitch-black, and there was very little sound other than a ghostly whistling as the wind blew through the space.

This place looked more like a cavern than the bottom of a cleft in the mountains. I checked my scanner, which told me that the altitude was around 2,950 m. Not a very large drop, but definitely enough to make a difference, as my surroundings proved.

I disconnected the clips from my belt loops, leaving the rope hanging. I took the end of the rope and looped it around a protruding rock, knotting it so that it wouldn't loosen.

I began exploring, leaving the rope for when I came back.

I walked around for several tenths of a superrev, studying the rock formations. There wasn't any life here besides me; the sun was too far up for photosynthesis and hydrothermal vents only exist underwater.

While I was looking at a fossil that lay exposed in the rock, I suddenly heard what sounded like a ragged, weak heartbeat. I looked around, searching for the source.

I began walking around, following my scanner as it pinpointed the source through the echoing.

I locked onto the source. I followed the scanner's mapping system, and was at the location in a couple tenths of a superrev.

I turned the scanner off to save power and looked around. After a quick search, nothing turned up, and I turned around to leave.

That's when I saw it. A part of the rock that reflected my flashlight's beam in an unusual pattern.

I went over to the thing. I leaned my head close to it, and heard the heartbeat, much louder than its echo. That confirmed it. This thing was an animal. Not only that, it was alive. But it was also hurt.

I took off a glove and cautiously touched the thing. It shook a little at my touch, then calmed down.

I ran my hand over it. It was covered in a layer of fur that shone black in the light.

I felt its muscles and bones underneath the fur. Judging by the approximate shape of the bone structure, I was touching its back. The width and angles of the ribs told me that this creature, whatever it was, was humanoid, and most likely bipedal.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a sudden ragged breath that rippled through the animal.

I went to work assessing what was wrong with it. I carefully reached a hand around its sides and gently lifted it, then turned it over and slowly placed it back down on the rock.

When I did this, the animal let out a small cry, followed by another ragged breath.

I looked at its head first. It had a small mouth, its nose was similar to a cat's without whiskers, and its eyes were closed. Its forehead reached an inch or so over the top of its eye sockets, and two long, thin ears came out from the sides of its head next to its eyes.

I gently pressed its skull in key places with my fingers, eliciting a few more cries of pain. I frowned. Its skull had a large dent in it that marred most of the left side of its face. It definitely had a concussion and injuries to its eye, ear, mouth, and nose, which would explain the breathing.

I moved down and inspected its body. Its arms were fairly thick at the shoulders, tapering to fairly small hands.

I suddenly cried out too and dropped its arm, making it moan again. I looked at my index finger.

I had a cut along the side that reached from my fingertip to just past the second knuckle.

I sucked on the cut for a couple seconds, then checked it again, now that I had cleared the blood from it. It didn't look too bad. I'd be fine.

I went back to studying the animal. After further analysis, I found the source of the cut; three 8-inch-long claws.

I gasped. I instantly recognized those claws. They looked exactly like the lining I had found at my other excavation site, and exactly like the fossil I had found.


	6. Healing the Creature

Suddenly, this creature was of much more interest. I decided to take it back with me to the complex and give it a proper inspection, and, hopefully, heal it.

I decided to carry it in my pack, since I definitely couldn't climb back up with it in my arms.

This is probably a good time to explain how I can hold so many things in my pack, since I would utilize this special quality soon.

You see, before the Disasters, there was a cartoon-based theory of a separate dimension called the Hammerspace. Hammerspace is the place characters go to when they disappear behind a tree or pole, and where items that are seemingly pulled from nowhere are hidden. It was, in fact, named after Misty's famous hammer in _Pokemon,_ an example of a use of the Hammerspace.

In my time, a device was invented that connected reality with this new dimension, proving it real. This later evolved into products being made that can hold items in Hammerspace, giving much greater versatility in item storage. My pack is one such product.

Anyway, I took several blankets from the Hammerspace and lined the pack with them, then gently picked up the animal.

It took almost no resistance to lift it, and it was so light that I could barely feel it. I carefully curled its 4-foot frame up so that it could fit in my pack, then placed it on the blankets.

I took a short time to look at it. It was still unconscious, but its situation hadn't worsened yet. That would hopefully last until I was able to help it further.

I zipped up the pack and put it back on, then took out my scanner to make my way back to my rope. I walked slowly, careful not to bump the creature around inside the pack.

When I found the rope, I unknotted the loose end from the rock, reattached the clips to my belt loops and tugged on the loose end to begin pulling myself back up, still careful not to jar the pack.

When I got back to the top, I just detached the clips and started speed-walking back to the complex. The rope would be here when I came back, and I had bigger priorities right now.

I got to my apartment and went in, closing and locking the door to my room behind me. I knew that this creature needed immediate help, but I also couldn't risk anybody else finding out about it.

When the lock was secure, I went to my bed and put my pack down on the corner, clearing away the papers from the mattress. I unzipped my pack and looked at the creature.

It was still alive, thankfully, and didn't seem any worse off than earlier. I carefully took it out and laid it on its back, then straightened out its arms and legs.

I got my notebook and wrote down every injury I saw.

DENTED SKULL, LIKELY CRACKED

CONCUSSION

INJURIES TO LEFT EYE, NOSE, EAR, AND MOUTH

DISLOCATED RIGHT SHOULDER

BROKEN RIGHT ARM, MULTIPLE FRACTURE

ONE MISSING RIGHT TALON

SEVERAL BROKEN RIBS

DAMAGE TO LUNGS AND HEART

CRUSHED LEFT FOOT

IMPACTED LEFT PELVIS

NO EXTERIOR INJURIES, SOME INTERNAL BLEEDING

I took my scanner out and scanned it to examine its internal structures and brain waves.

NO DETECTABLE DAMAGE TO OTHER VITALS

VITAL SIGNS MOSTLY NORMAL

BRAIN WAVES: NORMAL THETA WAVE LEVELS

Next, I put down my notebook and took out a first aid kit from my pack, sending the blankets back to the Hammerspace.

I reset the shoulder, earning another groan from the animal, and wrapped gauze around the broken arm after lining it up as well as I could, then wrapped the gauze around its chest, head, and hips. The foot I decided to leave for when I had better equipment.

I looked at the animal, now wrapped in the gauze. I realized that, in order to give it better treatment, I would have to tell somebody about the animal. I didn't have any advanced medical equipment, and this animal needed several full-blown surgeries.

I thought over the problem, then remembered the girl from the Macromolecular Facilities, Karen Wu. She had said she was also in the medical offices. She already technically knew about the animal, since she had seen its DNA, but a _live_ specimen was something in an entirely different league. As well as that, it wasn't even night yet, and there were still 3 months left before the vacation ended. But she was the only person I knew there, and she probably could at least secure an operating room.

I decided to risk it, and opened my watch, pressing the central button.

"Karen Wu." I said to the watch, and it sent the call.

I barely had to wait at all before she answered, and her face appeared on the screen. She looked worn out.

"Hey, David!" she said, and her face suddenly lifted. I realized how beautiful she was now, since the last time we had met, we had both been wearing the visors of the anticontamination suits.

"What is it?" she asked, seeing my face, which still showed the worry I felt for the animal I had found.

"Remember the DNA test I made?" I asked. Karen nodded. "Well, I called to tell you something important about it, and to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" she asked. I shook my head.

"I don't think I can say it here. Can you come to my apartment so I can show you?" I said. Karen laughed before she noticed just how serious I was.

"Sure. Where's your apartment?" she asked.

"It's right next to the 2nd mountain tunnel from the main exit. It's a compound apartment." I said. Karen nodded.

''Alright. I'll be there in 65,703,600 revs.'' she said. I nodded, and she hung up.

I closed my watch and looked back at the unconscious animal. "Don't worry. You'll get help soon." I said to it. It, naturally, didn't reply.

Later, I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it, Karen was standing there.

''What was it you wanted to tell me?'' she asked, shifting her pack.

I moved out of the way so she could walk in, and closed and locked the door behind her, then turned to face her.

''Well, I spent several hours studying the DNA sheets, then took a break since it's the first day of Suma. I decided to go exploring the area underneath the complex.''

''That's interesting, but what does this have to do with the DNA?'' Karen asked.

''While I was exploring, I stumbled across something I never thought I'd see. It was an animal, one of the same species as the one that shed the talon lining. And not only was it the same species, it was also _live_.'' I said. Karen gasped.

''You actually saw one? And it was alive!?'' she exclaimed. I nodded.

''Alive, but very weak.'' I said.

''How weak?'' Karen asked, a tone of worry appearing in her voice.

''I'll show you. Follow me.'' I said, walking into my room.

Karen followed, and gasped again when she saw the gauze-wrapped animal. When she saw the telltale claws, she stood still, unable to comprehend its existence.

She was snapped out of her trance by realizing how injured it really was. ''How many injuries?'' she asked. I handed her my notebook, still on the page with the list. She read over it, then asked for a pen. I gave her one, and she updated the list, observing the animal to see what to put.

She handed it back to me. She had added three more injuries, and crossed out the dislocated shoulder. ''It'll need 4 major surgeries and several minor ones. The head and chest surgeries need to be done within the next several superrevs.''

''Can you get somebody to carry them out on such short notice?'' I asked. Karen looked at me and nodded.

''I'm certified for all the surgeries that it needs. Nobody else has to be told about it.'' she said. I hesitated, then nodded.

''Where should we take it?'' I asked. Karen thought for a few hundred thousand revs.

''I think we should take it outside somewhere. The cold will make it much easier, and there's less chance of anybody finding it before it's ready.''

I nodded. ''Alright. I know a good place. Should I take it there, or should I help you get the materials first?''

''I can get them alone. Where will you be?''

''I'll be at the peak of Mount Perdu. Should I get it a cot or something?''

''A flat rock is fine. Not enough time to get everything.''

I nodded, and she left to get the materials. I watched her leave, then went back inside.

I got the blankets again and lined my pack once more, then carefully lifted the animal, which groaned again, and placed it on the blankets, zipping the pack back up. I carefully put it on and walked out the door, heading to Mount Perdu.

Later, at Mount Perdu…

I stood up when I saw Karen coming. She nodded, looking at me, and then looked at the animal, which was laying on a flat rock I found, still unconscious.

She took out the surgical materials and began operating.

* * *

A few superrevs later…

 _Its brain suddenly jump-started, bringing it out of unconsciousness. It felt something poking around in its chest, but couldn't open its eyes to see what it was. When it tried to move, it found itself completely paralyzed. When it tried to breathe, nothing came in. It started feeling helpless, an emotion it wasn't used to. This lead to it panicking, and its mind began racing with images it would have done anything to forget._

 _It felt the metal thing leave its chest, and felt something being lowered into the space. It felt a short, sharp pain in each of its ribs, followed by its skin being pulled shut and more sharp pains._

 _The animal suddenly gasped, and silently thanked itself for being able to breathe. It panted, then forced itself to slow down, as each breath made the pains return._

 _It felt something being lowered onto its mouth and nose, followed by a strange gas that made it lightheaded. It felt its mind slowly slip into unconsciousness again._

* * *

''I finished the head and chest surgeries. Now there's a much larger time window to fix the rest.'' Karen said. I walked out from behind a rock face, and Karen laughed.

''You look like you've seen a ghost.'' she said. I blushed.

''Look, I have hematophobia. I can barely stand papercuts, much less full-on surgery.''

She just laughed again and continued, washing off the surgical instruments she had used in some alcohol. ''Well, now that the major surgeries are done, I'd say we have about 96 superrevs to complete the other surgeries, and, depending on the animal's natural ability to heal, recovery time will take until about mid-July or August.''

She looked at the animal worriedly. ''Any idea where it can stay for that long without being discovered?''

I sighed. ''Well, we can't just let it go, and I can't hide it in my apartment for that long. I'll take it back until I can think of a better place to put it, and just hope nobody visits until then. There's also my roommate to worry about, but I don't think he'll really bother with my room.''

Karen nodded. ''I'm going to go ahead and start the minor surgeries now.''

I nodded back and walked behind the rock face again.

"By the way," Karen added, "It's a female, if that changes anything."


End file.
